She's Not There
by Ramee
Summary: Quinn dies after the events of On My Way. Puck mourns. Beth saves him.


**A/N:** A little Puck/Quinn fic I wrote forever ago after On My Way.

Noah Puckerman dresses in a sharp black suit and adjusts his tie in the mirror. His eyes were still red around the edges from the intense crying jag he went on last night, but he wouldn't cry at her funeral. Because he was Noah Puckerman, and he didn't cry. At least not in public.

When he arrived at the funeral hall, the eighteen-year-old was ushered to the front row by some random dude in a brown suit. He didn't really understand why he was so important. He looked around and saw the sympathetic looks of the mourners. The half-hearted smiles of reassurance. But he ignored them. He was _not _the boy that Quinn Fabray left behind.

He stared at the ground, focusing all his energy on getting through this funeral so he could go on pretending that everything was okay.

"Noah."

He looks up, ready to endure a pep talk from someone he barely knew. But he looked up and saw Shelby Cocoran holding the only girl that could possibly make him feel better in her arms.

His daughter.

He shot up, immediately reaching for Beth. It'd been months since he'd seen her, and he missed her like crazy.

"Shelby," he said, after he had his beautiful one-and-a-half year old in his arms. "What are you doing here?"

"I thought Beth should be at her mother's funeral," Shelby said. Puck looked at the baby girl in his arms. She looked so much like Quinn. "And I thought you could really use your daughter right now."

Puck nodded at her, not being able to force a smile. Shelby squeezed his arm before retreating to a seat somewhere behind him, leaving him alone to catch up with his daughter.

"Hey, baby girl," Puck said, kissing her forehead. He only acted like this—like a sappy idiot—for two girls in the world. Quinn and Beth.

But now one of them was dead.

"Da-da."

Puck kissed Beth's forehead. She'd first said this the last time he'd visited her, and it warmed his heart to hear it again.

He sat down and held her closely to his chest and thought about how close he and Quinn were in their fight to get their daughter back. He was so happy to have her here, because Shelby was right. Puck needed Beth.

The service began and a minister stepped to the podium, beginning to talk about Quinn like he knew her. He didn't, though. No one knew her. No one knew her like Puck did.

Beth pointed to a large photo of Quinn that was standing up in the front of the room—a photo Puck had been trying to avoid looking at—and made an adorable noise. Puck said "shh" into her hair. Then the baby snuggled herself into her father's chest.

It broke Puck's heart to know that as this girl grew up, she'd have no memory of her natural mother. She'd only have pictures and stories told about the first year and a half of her life, stories about her mother's fight for her.

Because Puck refused to let Beth believe that Quinn didn't love her.

"Now I believe Ms. Fabray's close friend, Noah Puckerman would like to say a few words.

Puck didn't want to let go of Beth, not now, so he carried her to the front of the room with him. He had no idea what he would say.

"Um, I'm the kind of person who doesn't really get close to a lot of people," he began. Shelby nodded at him from the pews, urging him to keep talking. "But Quinn was different. She got to me. And she gave me this beautiful baby girl right here."

A few of the mourners said their _aww_s, simply because Beth was the most adorable baby on the face of the earth. Or, at least in Puck's mind, she was. Because she looked like her mother.

"Quinn had a lot of good things going on in her life. She was going to Yale. She had an amazing daughter. And although she didn't always know it, she had me. She always had me, and she always will have me." He paused, because he didn't want to make this about himself. Quinn deserved more than that.

"Quinn Fabray was powerful. That's really the only word for it. She moved people. She could say one sentence and it would speak a thousand words. When she talked, people listened. When she moved, people watched. She had a baby when she was sixteen, and she still managed to keep her power. She was amazing. And she will truly be missed."

It was silent for a moment, then Beth clapped and smiled up at Puck. "Da-da!" she said. Light chuckles filled the room, and Puck kissed his daughter's cheek before sitting back down.

As the service continued, Puck watched his baby girl. He looked at her and saw her mother, and he was happy to have this piece of Quinn to hold on to.

Yeah, Puck was gonna be alright. Because he had Beth.

**A/N: **Reviews?


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